Automatic rifle

The meaning of the term “automatic rifle” has changed significantly over time. Initially, while such a weapon was rare, they designated any rifle in which an energy source different from the shooter’s muscular strength was used for reloading - for example, giving a weapon or withdrawing a portion of powder gases - regardless of whether it was able to fire in bursts or only single shots. Subsequently, as the spread of new weapons and the appearance of its varieties, the name "automatic rifle" stuck only for those samples that allowed firing in bursts; the same rifles, in which the reloading was also carried out automatically, but only a single fire could be fired, were called “self-loading rifles” .

In this article, the history of the emergence and development of both types of weapons is considered partly together, especially since the differences in the design and combat use of both types of weapons up to the spread of intermediate ammunition and weapons under them were not fundamental, so separating them within the framework of the historical section would be artificial .

The term "automatic rifle" is used in its narrow, modern sense - to refer to a rifle capable of firing bursts; rifles that do not have this capability are referred to as "self-loading" , and together they and others will be denoted by the general term "with automated reloading . "

It should be noted that many of the samples described in this article, strictly speaking, do not refer to rifles, but to carbines . However, on the other hand, by itself the term “carbine” just means a lighter and shorter type of rifle, with clear criteria allowing to unambiguously assign a particular sample to rifles or carbines, if they exist, they are very vague in nature. So their joint consideration is also quite permissible, especially since, despite some difference in terms of size, ease of handling and characteristics, in their fighting qualities, automatic rifles and automatic carbines in practice are often quite close to each other. Here, more significant than the issues of classification, are their close proximity to each other in terms of their purpose and role in battle.

Generations

In the Soviet and Russian literature, there are often two generations of automatic rifles, distinguished by the ammunition used and the overall concept.

The first generation automatic rifles appeared at the very end of the 19th - early 20th century. They used rifle and machine gun cartridges for firing - the same ones that were used in non-automatic magazine rifles.

This also applies to post-war weapons under the standard “reduced” unit of the NATO block (compared to the .30-06 standard adopted in the USA before it, 7.62 × 63 mm), the rifle cartridge 7.62 × 51 mm , in some countries consisting of armed until today.

Due to the excessive power, size and weight of such cartridges, the first-generation automatic rifles had large dimensions and weight, were difficult and expensive to manufacture, and at the same time - had very low bursts of shooting characteristics.

Therefore, the main mode of fire for them was a single, and the automatic ordered to conduct only at a critical moment of the battle.

In view of this, unlike self-loading rifles for the same cartridges that were widely distributed in some countries, they were practically nowhere used as the main infantry weapons, instead of which, along with them, the old infantry rifles and carbines, self-loading rifles for the same cartridge, as well as various models of submachine guns for pistol ammunition.

Some models of the first generation of automatic rifles had folding bipods, which allowed, if necessary, to use them as a light machine gun, which significantly increased the effectiveness of fire bursts, but made such samples even heavier and cumbersome.

Automatic rifles of the second generation (or rather, shortened automatic carbines) appeared during World War II in Nazi Germany, and later, in the postwar years, in the USSR.

They were led to their appearance: a wealth of experience in the development and operation of self-loading and automatic rifles of the first generation - on the one hand; analysis of the use and work to improve the combat qualities of submachine guns , at that time massively used by both countries - on the other.

They used for the shooting specially designed for them fundamentally new cartridges, the so-called "intermediate" (intermediate in power between the machine-gun rifles used in the early automatic rifles - and pistol guns, under which the submachine guns were made), which made it much easier to make weapons its more compact and at the same time - to increase the efficiency of automatic fire from it.

To distinguish from other types of automatic rifles for old cartridges, both in Germany and in the USSR, the original names were adopted for the new weapons, to a large extent conditional - an assault rifle (Sturmgewehr) and a machine gun , respectively. Both of them are fully consistent with the concept of "automatic carbine for an intermediate cartridge."

The first term was subsequently widely used in the West for the everyday designation of automatic rifles and second-generation carbines as a whole, but it is practically not used as an official one. Subsequently, together with the translated literature, it penetrated into the Russian language and is often used to designate weapons systems of foreign origin (for example, the American M16 rifle ).

After the war in Germany, work in this direction was stopped due to economic problems, and later - due to the unification of ammunition within the formed military-political blocs ( NATO for the Federal Republic of Germany and the ATS for the GDR ).

In the USSR, an interim cartridge of 7.62 × 39 mm , adopted as early as the war years, was created in 1947, and in 1949 a very successful sample of a new type of weapon, the Kalashnikov assault rifle , was adopted; it became the main weapon of Soviet and Russian for many decades to come. infantry; Upgraded versions of it are in service to the present.

In terms of dimensions and barrel length, the AK (like the StG-44) does not correspond to a “full-size” rifle, but a shortened one, that is, a carbine; the automatic rifle partly corresponds to the PKK machine gun created at its base, in the role of which it is sometimes used (when shooting from hands without bipods). In addition, real automatic rifles based on the Kalashnikov system were created in a number of foreign countries, examples are the Yugoslav Zastava M77 automatic rifle chambered for 7.62 mm NATO or the Chinese Type 81 .

Meanwhile, within the framework of the NATO bloc hostile to the USSR and its allies, unification of the ammunition used was carried out at the same time period, and the American rifle-and-machine gun cartridge T65, 7.62 × 51 mm NATO - was adopted as the main weapon relative to the .30-06 cartridge used in the USA before it (7.62 × 63 mm), but still remaining in its power within the framework of the usual rifle cartridges of the previous generation. ^[one]

The weapons systems created for this cartridge - rifles M14 , AR-10 , FN FAL , L1 , HK G3 and others - although sometimes contained in their design a number of innovations compared to automatic rifles of the pre-war and military period, such as individual forend and stock and a pistol grip instead of a solid wooden box, but still were not direct analogues of weapons adopted in the countries of Social Camp for intermediate cartridges, in most cases remaining too large, massive and having low accuracy of automatic fire.

This, as well as small, due to the excessive mass and size of the cartridges, wearable ammunition still forced the shooter to use the new rifles as self-loading most of the time (in fact, many of them had modifications that were completely unable to shoot bursts), and only in case of emergency. American automatic rifles M14 during the war in Vietnam were usually even issued to soldiers with the interpreter of the fire regimes removed, since in most cases, shooting from them in bursts from their hands was a waste of ammunition.

For automatic rifles, on the contrary, automatic fire from the very beginning was designated as its main mode, and the use of “intermediate” cartridges in them made its effectiveness quite acceptable for solving combat missions. This was mainly due to the wide experience of the Soviet army using machine guns obtained during the Second World War, as a result of which the creation of a high density of fire was recognized as a priority in combat, and the machine gun was viewed as essentially a submachine gun with an increased range of fire. . For the same reasons, the Simonov self-loading carbine was quickly decommissioned under the same cartridge, which surpassed the automatic machine in terms of the effectiveness of a single fire, which was considered insignificant compared to considerations of unification of weapons.

The development of weapons that corresponded to the class of Soviet machine guns for intermediate cartridges began in the USA only in the late fifties, and this happened due to the appearance of so-called “low-impulse” intermediate cartridges of reduced caliber.

The first model of it, an M16 rifle for an intermediate cartridge of 5.56 × 45 mm , was put into service only in 1964.

After that, the gradual distribution of a new intermediate patron for NATO countries began, which process was finally completed only in the eighties and was accompanied by the removal from service of weapons or the transfer of weapons to outdated weapons for obsolete 7.62 mm NATO ammunition.

Subsequently, following the example of NATO, the USSR also undertook a transition from an intermediate cartridge of normal caliber (7.62 mm) to a small-caliber intermediate cartridge of 5.45 × 39 mm , the expediency of which still remains the subject of heated debate.

It should be noted that in the West there is no difference in terms of the terminology between weapons chambered for 7.62 NATO and for new low-impulse intermediate cartridges. And that, and that in most cases is designated by means of the term corresponding to the Russian word "rifle" . In particular, the same M16 has an official designation - Rifle, Caliber 5.56 mm, M16 , that is - “rifle, caliber 5.56 mm, model 16” . As a matter of fact, the term “ intermediate cartridge ” in Western terminology itself was never official or literary, and ammunition that falls into this class by domestic standards is simply referred to as “rifle cartridge ”.

True, in English-speaking sources, automatic rifles are sometimes referred to as “ battle rifle ” for “ordinary” rifle-machine-gun cartridges, and as assault rifle for intermediate ones, but this division is not official and largely conditional (however, for example, the American Mk 14 rifle EBR mod. 0 is officially called Enhanced Battle Rifle ). The term assault rifle , “assault rifle”, is generally not strictly and unequivocally defined, rather refers to a near-slang weapon and can be used in everyday life in relation to almost any rapid-fire long-range hand weapon.

The author of several books on the history of military technology Anthony Williams (Anthony G. Williams) defines an assault rifle as “adopted rifle, capable of firing controlled bursts of fire from hands, and having an effective firing range of at least 300 meters” , and clearly excludes from this class submachine guns and weapons under the “full-size” rifle cartridges (automatic rifles of the first generation), including 7.62 × 51 mm NATO ^[2] . As can be seen from the definition, in its meaning it is fully consistent with the term “second generation automatic rifle” adopted in Russian terminology.

If the designers of the USSR and, for the most part, other ATS countries after the war, focused their attention on creating automatic carbines (machine guns), then in the West, even after switching to intermediate low-impulse cartridges, they continued to improve the concept of a full-size automatic rifle, adapted mainly for accurate shooting with single shots , and automatic mode having as an extra.

For example, the standard rifle of the US Army M16 has, as the main mode of fire, not automatic, like machine guns, but single. This causes many of its design features, in particular, a very long barrel (508 mm or 91 caliber, against 415 mm or 54 calibers for AK and 76 calibers for AK74), and also determines its superiority over AK and many other samples precisely by accuracy single shots. The modern combined-arms modification of this weapon is completely deprived of the possibility to conduct automatic fire, instead of which it has a mode of firing in short bursts with a “cutoff” of 3 shots each.

The M4 carabiner on its base, similar to machines in size, barrel length and role in combat, was created only in relatively recent times. ^{[ when? ]} , according to the experience of combat actions, which showed the length of M16 rifles, which was excessive for many combat situations.

Thus, despite the observed great monotony of the device and the principles of operation of various samples of modern automatic rifles and second-generation carbines, different countries still developed different concepts of their combat use and, as a result, design canons, which caused their appearance tactical and technical characteristics of the models.

The idea of ​​automating the reloading of small arms to increase its firepower appeared a long time ago, even before the appearance of unitary cartridges with a metal sleeve and smokeless powders.

In 1854 in England, Henry Bessemer patented a rapid-fire gun, in which the shutter was opened by recoil, reloading and cocking the trigger. It was followed by the systems of Blakeli, Masso, Calle, Mokriff, Johnson, Miller and others, but none of them was developed.

In 1863, the project of a rifle with automated reloading was proposed by the American Regulus Pilon, it had to have a sliding bolt and a return spring. In 1866, the Englishman Joseph Curtis developed a rifle with an automated reloading and a drum magazine like a revolver drum. Frenchman Refffy, the author of one of the first types of machine gun ( mitraleses , or canis), also created his own version of a rifle with automated reloading, but all these early attempts to automate handguns were unsuccessful.

In 1882, the Winchester company produced a 30-gauge self-loading carbine (7.62 mm) in the USA, which had a free bolt and an 8-round magazine. The following year, Maxim Maximus produced the first version of his famous machine gun , firing 45-caliber cartridges (11.43 mm) with black powder, using the recoil of the barrel with a short stroke and crank-connecting rod for automatic operation. Ещё через год он же сконструировал и винтовку с автоматизированным перезаряжанием, использовав в качестве основы магазинную винтовку «Винчестер» модели 1873 года, а позднее — ещё один вариант, использовавший для работы автоматики отдачу ствола с коротким ходом. Считается, что именно винтовки Максима были первым хорошо действующими образцами ручного оружия с автоматизированным перезаряжанием, хотя они, в отличие от его пулемёта, завоевавшего шумный успех, и не были приняты на вооружение ни одной армией.

За этим последовало создание множества систем, таких, как системы Мадсена-Расмусена (1886) , Браунинга (1889) , Клера, Гочкиса , Маннлихера, Бергмана , Шварцлозе , Маузера и другие. Они уже был рассчитаны на новые патроны, стреляющие бездымным порохом, что значительно повысило их надёжность и работоспособность, так как бездымный порох был мощнее и давал намного меньше нагара, чем чёрный.

In Russia in 1886-1889 proposed several of their projects automatic rifle former forester D. Rudnitsky and gunsmith M. Doubles. The original automatic rifle with a fixed barrel, different from all the structures known at that time, in 1904 was invented by the talented self-taught Ya. U. Roshchepey - an ordinary soldier of the Russian army, the blacksmith of the Zegrzh fortress repair shop. The Roshpeya rifle was the first Russian fixed-rifle automatic rifle, the automation of which implemented the principle of a semi-free shutter. In addition to them, among Russian designers, the models of automatic weapons were proposed by V. G. Fedorov, F. V. Tokarev, V. A. Degtyarev, I. N. Kolesnikov, N. M. Filatov, the attendant Staganovich, the master Shchukin, Colonel Vasmund and other self-taught gunsmiths. As a result, not a single sample was claimed by the tsarist authorities and was not produced by the Russian industry, they preferred to either buy automatic weapons abroad at fabulous prices in the fire department, or produce them in Russia under a license for imported foreign machines, which was also not cheap ^{[3 ]} .

In 1896, the Mexican general M. Mondragon patented his first rifle, and in 1908 its modified automatic version was adopted in Mexico. However, due to a weak technical base, an order for the manufacture of Mondragon rifles (given the verbal name Porfirio Diaz - Fusil Porfirio Diaz Sistema Mondragón Modelo 1908 , in honor of the then President of Mexico) was placed in Switzerland at the SIG factory. Subsequently, already during the First World War, several thousand Mondragon rifles, not redeemed by Mexico because of political turmoil, fell to the Germans and were used by them in hostilities, however, showing themselves not in the best way.

With the venting mechanism turned off, this weapon could be used as a conventional magazine rifle with manual reloading. There were several modifications - with an 8-cartridge, with a 20-cartridge and with a 30-cartridge shops, and also a light machine gun capable of firing automatic fire with a 100-cartridge drum magazine.

From the point of view of design, the Mondragon rifle had almost all the characteristics of a modern self-loading or automatic rifle: a vapor engine, locking the barrel bore by turning the bolt, a detachable large-capacity magazine. However, the reliability and manufacturability of this sample, as well as other early systems with automatic reloading, were far from satisfactory, which was the reason that in those years almost no automatic or self-loading rifle became widespread.

The only exception is the 1918 American Browning automatic rifle ( BAR - Browning Automatic Rifle ), but in essence it was more like a light machine gun, as indicated by a weight that is clearly excessive for a hand weapon - 7-8 kg, depending on the modification, as well as - availability of bipods on most options. ^[four]

It was also very close to light machine guns and an automatic rifle ( “automatic rifle” in the terminology of the time) Shosh-Sutter-Riberol CSRG Model 1915; in fact, today this sample is so commonly called the Shosh machine gun , but in fact for the machine gun this weapon had an insufficient magazine capacity, while it was designed for firing from the hands (although it served it at the same time person).

Introduced in Russia / USSR for the partial armament of the army in the late 1910s - 1920s. Fedorov's “machine gun” , which was an automatic rifle that used a fairly well-chosen Japanese 6.5-mm cartridge with a small-capacity rifle and machine-gun ammunition of those years, was also limited in combat, but even from the designer’s point of view, it was not reliable enough and unnecessarily complex design, so he had no chance to become a mass model of weapons.

In general, with regard to all automatic rifles created in the period before the Second World War, the following should be noted. The creators of manual automatic weapons at that time inevitably stood before the choice of the cartridges in service, of which in fact none of them were suitable for its successful development: either the excessively heavy and powerful old rifle-and-machine guns introduced in the late 19th century to the magazine rifles and of its capacity designed to conduct "plutongovoy" shooting at hinged trajectory and the use of machine guns, - or, conversely, too low-powered pistol, which makes low fighting quality used them Pistole comrade-machine guns and, in most cases, the inability of administration as the main army type firearms.

The development of intermediate between rifle-machine-gun and pistol-powered cartridges, the earliest of which date back to the years of the First World War, did not develop at that time due to the high cost of re-equipping the army with new ammunition and many other factors.

Therefore, the vast majority of early series rifles with automated reloading were self-loading. If the automatic fire mode was provided, it was used as an auxiliary, intended for an emergency moment of the battle, which was caused by the low efficiency of fire by bursts of such weapons, due to high recoil and, as a result, high dispersion when shooting from the hands, as well as small ammunition stock - as available on the weapon itself (as a rule, the magazine’s capacity did not exceed 15–20 cartridges, the stores for a greater number of rifle and machine-gun cartridges were extremely cumbersome and were used by ie mainly on machine guns), and generally wearable shooter.

The further evolution of automatic rifles as a class of weapons is associated with the emergence of intermediate ammunition during the Second World War and the gradual proliferation in the postwar years - a separate article is devoted to this topic.

In the interwar period, self-loading rifles for rifle and machine-gun cartridges were adopted for limited armament in many countries as an addition to the non-automated magazine rifles used as the main sample. For example, in the USSR, during the war years, Tokarev’s rifle, a mass military vehicle that was planned to be introduced as the main model of infantry small arms over the course of time, was sufficiently massive — these plans were prevented by the onset of hostilities. But only the United States, relying on its powerful weapon industry and the economy as a whole, shortly before the outbreak of World War II, introduced the Garand self-loading rifle as the main model of infantry small arms, replacing it with all models of magazine rifles with non-automated reloading.

It is significant that, in terms of the design, the Garand rifle differed little, say, from the Mondragon system - for example, it used the same gas engine with a gas piston located under the barrel connected to the bolt group with a long pusher going from under the barrel to the bolt handle right side of the receiver. However, the improvement of design methods and technology for the production of weapons for the past between the development of these systems has already allowed to bring it to the level of reliability and manufacturability, allowing you to enter it as the main model of army small arms.

Developing, self-loading rifles for rifle and machine-gun ammunition survived to our time, but are no longer used as general army weapons, but as specialized sniper weapons - for example, the Soviet SVD or the American M21 and M25 .

Back in the late 80s of the 20th century, weapons expert and weapon historian Alexander Zhuk noted that “modern machine guns are now at the same high degree of development as shop rifles were at one time among non-automatic weapons . ”

At the beginning of the next, 21st century, this statement is all the more true.

At present, almost all the reserves associated with the evolutionary development of the existing design of automatic rifles (“assault rifles”, machine guns) have already been exhausted. The device of various types of weapons of this type is, in most cases, fundamentally the same character - either automatic gas engines of one type or another are used for the operation of automation, or (much less often) a semi-free valve, the structure of the other mechanisms is also basically identical in most cases.

Improving this type of weapon is primarily on the way: improving ergonomics ; use in the manufacture of modern materials, for example - polymers for the receiver; introducing into the weapon the principle of modularity, which makes it easy to modify it with the help of easily removable modules; introducing new, including computerized, aiming systems; increase store capacity; constructing rifle-grenade launchers of varying complexity - from a simple “grenade launcher” to a hybrid of a small-caliber machine gun developed under the OICW program with a self-loading 20-mm grenade launcher having its own ballistic computer and grenades with homing elements on the target; and similar improvements that do not affect the fundamentals of the structure and operation of the weapon itself.

At the same time, attempts are being made to create fundamentally new, revolutionary weapon systems. Sometimes, by individual characteristics, they overlap the characteristics of serial rifles several times, but at the same time some other indicators suffer; either the created samples do not have sufficient reliability, or their high cost, complexity in production or operation exceed the benefits obtained from their implementation.

None of these promising areas at the moment has led to the emergence of mass military weapons of a fundamentally new generation.

First of all, it is necessary to mention the work on systems for caseless ammunition .

Among the military weapons, the most advanced and the only such small series produced are the German HK G11 rifle.

The complex of advanced military weapons, including the G11 automatic rifle with various modifications and the original cartridgeless cartridge used by it, was developed over a long period from the 1970s to the 1990s by the German company Heckler & Koch together with Dynamit Nobel AG.

From a purely technical point of view, the G11 has certainly been an outstanding model, and it remains to this day. The innovations introduced by its creators into the device of firearms are probably the most radical in nature since the second half of the 19th century, when the transition to breech-loading weapons and a cartridge with a metal sleeve occurred. The combat characteristics shown by this sample also significantly exceed those of similar mass-produced weapons.

Meanwhile, the prospects for the introduction of sleeveless cartridges and weapon systems using them now look rather vague, especially against the background of the outlined transition to shells made of polymer and composite materials, much lighter compared to brass or steel, which largely depreciates one of the main the advantages of the caseless systems - increasing the wearable by the shooter ammunition by reducing the weight of each cartridge, which is deprived of the sleeve.

In 2004, the development of the G11 was bought out by Americans to use when creating a promising light machine gun for the US Army under the program Lightweight Small Arms Technologies; However, in the course of further development of the concept, it was decided to abandon the use of the original sleeveless ammunition in favor of a similarly constructed (bullet immersed in an explosive) sleeve with a polymer sleeve.

It should be noted that even the later version of the cartridge to the G11 itself was in fact no longer bezgilzovym, and belonged to the so-called type “with a burning sleeve” - “the sleeve” was formed by a layer of varnish on the gunpowder saber cartridge. Nevertheless, the strength and durability of the cartridges during storage were all the same low - as a result, in particular, the equipment of the shop to the G11 in the field was impossible, the shops had to go to the troops in factory equipped form; instead of the problem of spontaneous combustion of the cartridge in the chamber after a long firing, which the varnish was supposed to eliminate, another appeared - the pollution of the chamber and the trunk as a whole by the combustion products of the lacquer coating, that is, in fact, the same problem that was characteristic even in its time (mid XIX century) adopted in Prussia Dreyse rifle with a burning paper sleeve. Ironically, G11 and the other problem also characteristic of the Dreize ancient system were the achievement of obturation, that is, the elimination of the breakthrough of powder gases in the bolt assembly (in conventional weapons, it is very successfully solved by a sleeve, the pliable walls of which are pressed to the walls of the chamber when fired) tight that no gas breakthrough occurs). Although, according to the manufacturer, it was solved positively, the mechanism of the rifle turned out to be not only difficult (the Germans themselves sometimes compare it with Swiss watches), but also requires very high precision manufacturing, which would certainly create major problems when producing weapons in mass series.

However, it is still likely that some other constructive solutions typical of the G11 will be used in the future’s weapons, such as a rotary breech bureaucrat working in tandem with a gas engine; a large-capacity store located on top of a weapon (a store that is similar in design has already been used on the FN P90 submachine gun); which gives a very significant advantage in accuracy when firing in fixed-length bursts due to the displacement of the recoil impulse "lafethe" scheme (already used on the Russian machine gun under the traditional Abykan AN-94 ammunition ammunition; however, similar developments were made in the USSR and much earlier, long before the start of work on the G11 - for example, the Tkachev AO-62 machine gun).

As another promising direction, also related to rifle ammunition, we can name the work on arrow-shaped striking elements (SPEL).

The first developments in this area date back to the 1960s, and were conducted independently in the USSR and the USA.

In the USSR, the designers Dvoryaninov and Shiryaev created (inventor's certificate No. 22527 dated June 1, 1960) several samples of ammunition with SPEL of 3 / 7.62 mm caliber (the first figure is the true diameter of the sabot arrow, the second is the caliber of the barrel) and operable automatic machine AO-27 (1961).

2.4 grams of feathered metal hands had a high flatness of the trajectory due to the high initial velocity (1060 m / s), which, in combination with a large lateral load, informed them of enviable penetration capacity. The direct shot range was 530 m, against 350 for AK. In addition, the momentum of recoil of the weapon was very small, about half lower than that of a conventional machine gun. To increase the damaging effect, there was a cut in the middle of the arrow, due to which it broke in the wound canal into two parts, which began to "tumble", creating temporary cavities in the tissues.

Later, a cartridge for weapons of 7.62 × 54R caliber, the Dragunov rifle and the Goryunov SG-43 machine gun were created . He showed high sniper qualities, and also provided double survivability of a machine gun barrel. The greater flatness of the trajectory of the sabot bullet compensated for the somewhat worse, compared with the 7.62 mm sniper cartridge, the accuracy of the fight.

Nevertheless, in those years, two significant shortcomings of the SPEL system were noted - first, the high cost of ammunition, and second, the relatively low stopping effect. Therefore, work in this direction in the USSR did not go beyond the framework of experimental design.

Американцы начали работы над боеприпасами со СПЭЛ немного раньше — первый патент на него был получен Ирвином Барром в 1954-57 годах, но впоследствии шли они намного медленнее — первые действующие образцы появились лишь в середине шестидесятых — семидесятых годах. Среди программ, в которых фигурировали СПЭЛ, можно назвать такие, как SPIW , Steyr ACR , SCMITR .

Ни одна из них также не привела к появлению серийного образца.

Тем не менее, вполне вероятно, что разработки в этой области в будущем станут основой для создания новых типов боеприпасов и даже оружия, так как даваемые ими преимущества в эффективной дальности стрельбы и пробивной способности становится в последнее время особо актуальными, последнее — в связи с распространением бронежилетов и иных средств индивидуальной защиты. В Австрии фирмой Steyr уже создана, хотя и не принята на вооружение, крупнокалиберная (15,2 мм) «противоматериальная» (предназначенная для борьбы с материальной частью войск противника — небронированной и легкобронированной техникой) снайперская винтовка (впрочем, применение термина винтовка к этому оружию некорректно) AMR / IWS 2000 , имеющая гладкий ствол и ведущая огонь СПЭЛ, построенными по подобию пушечных ОБПС .

Важным является также такое направление в совершенствовании армейских винтовок, как повышение кучности боя .

В то время, как кучность боя одиночными выстрелами уже у современных серийных образцов существенно превосходит возможности среднестатистического стрелка, по кучности автоматического огня всё ещё остаются существенные резервы для улучшения.

Наряду с традиционными, уже практически полностью исчерпанными, способами её повышения — такими, как уменьшения тряски оружия при работе автоматики, применение дульных тормозов и компенсаторов, снижение импульса отдачи за счёт перехода на менее мощный патрон, и так далее — разрабатываются и принципиально новые способы.

В результате проведённых в СССР широких исследований было выявлено две схемы, потенциально позволяющие добиться существенного (в разы) улучшения кучности автоматического оружия при стрельбе из неустойчивых положений (с рук, с колена и так далее).

Первая — так называемая лафетная, или схема со смещением импульса отдачи — была ещё в 70-х годах применена в опытном автомате Никонова, который после длительного совершенствования был уже в России принят на ограниченное вооружение как АН-94 . Как уже упоминалось, подобная «лафетная» схема также применялась на немецкой опытной винтовке G11 .

Благодаря особой конструкции оружия, все подвижные части которого (ствол, газоотводный двигатель, затворная коробка с затвором, и даже специальный промежуточный магазин на 2 патрона — ранние варианты даже имели подвижным весь основной магазин) могут двигатель по продольным направляющим внутри играющей роль лафета пластмассовой кожух-ложи, отдача практически не влияет на положение оружия до момента, когда все отстреленные пули покинут ствол.

Этот механизм работает только при стрельбе в специальном режиме — фиксированными короткими очередями по 2 патрона. На кучности боя одиночными и обычного автоматического огня он практически никак не сказывается, так что по этим параметрам АН-94 не имеет существенного преимущества над имеющимися серийными образцами автоматов.

Наряду с этим, конструкция АН весьма сложна, как в производстве, так и в эксплуатации, что делает его мало подходящим для введения в качестве основного армейского оружия, в особенности в призывной армии России. Создать же более простое оружие по этой схеме вряд ли возможно.

Вторая схема — со сбалансированной автоматикой. Её представляют такие образцы, как автомат Кокшарова АЕК-971 и варианты автомата Калашникова — АК-107 и АК-108, созданные на базе более раннего автомата Александрова.

Эта схема не позволяет повысить кучность автоматического огня столь радикально, как «лафетная» схема Никонова, зато улучшение достигается при любой длине очереди.

Её сущность состоит в том, что одновременно с движением затвора в противоположном направлении перемещается специальный балансир, приводимый в движение вторым газовым поршнем и синхронизированный с движением затвора при помощи реечно-шестерёнчатого механизма. Его движение и удар в крайне переднем положении компенсирует отход затвора назад и его удар в крайне заднем положении, за счёт чего существенно уменьшается тряска оружия при ведении автоматического огня.

Выигрыш в кучности автоматического огня не слишком значителен и для АЕК составляет по различным оценкам около 15-20 % относительно АК74 . С другой стороны, по иным данным кучность при стрельбе из неустойчивого положения стоя — в 1,5 — 2,0 раза лучше по сравнению со штатным АК74М, что уже является весьма существенным улучшением.

Ни один из этих образцов также не стал серийным, хотя все они показали свою работоспособность. Работы в этом направлении всё ещё ведутся.

Любопытной советской разработкой, направленной на повышение кучности при стрельбе очередями и поражающей способности оружия, был созданный в рамках той же темы «Абакан», что и АН и АЕК, двуствольный автомат AO-63 , разработанный в 1980-х — 90-х годах. Он мог стрелять короткими очередями залпом сразу из двух стволов с очень высоким темпом — 6000 выстрелов в минуту. По кучности в этом режиме он не уступал автомату Никонова с его «лафетной» схемой. Впрочем, ещё раньше, в начале 1960-х годов, Германом Коробовым был создан ТКБ-059 («прибор 3Б»), который вёл залповый огонь с трёх стволов, что также позволяло существенно повысить кучность — однако это была чисто опытная конструкция, созданная для отработки данного принципа, и продолжения не имевшая.

Наконец, можно отметить такой путь повышения боевых качеств автоматических винтовок и автоматов, как создание на их базе винтовочно-гранатомётных (автоматно-гранатомётных) комплексов .

The first step in this direction was made with the introduction in the seventies of grenade launchers to the rifles and machine guns in service. They were made in the form of an additional removable hub, which was installed on a part of the squad’s regular armament (usually 2-4 per detachment) as a support weapon.

Unlike the previous rifle grenades, which were launched through the barrel of a weapon using a special nozzle (moreover, often only with a special blank cartridge), rifle grenade launchers could be transferred to the weapon in a charged form, without interfering with firing and could be brought into action any moment of battle that was a big advantage. Nevertheless, they remained singly charged (the American M203 and the German AG36 are loaded with cartridge ammunition from the breech, the Soviet models - from the muzzle of the sleeveless), and this significantly limited their combat capabilities - reloading such a grenade launcher for the next shot takes quite a long time, and while the shooter is deprived of the opportunity to fire from the main weapon.

The logical development of this idea was the emergence of rifle-and-grenade launchers and automatic-grenade launchers, specially designed for use in conjunction with a grenade launcher. Such complexes were created both abroad and in the USSR / Russia - for example, OTs-14 Thunderstorm and A-91 .

However, the Americans in their development have decided to go further, combining a rifle already with a self-loading grenade launcher. These works were carried out as part of the program to create a modular automatic rifle of the new generation OICW . It was believed that the effectiveness of the XM29 complex, which included a 5.56-mm rifle based on the HK G36 and a 20-mm grenade launcher with air explosion grenades, which have homing elements due to the ballistic computer built into the weapon, will exceed that of the M16 / M203 complex in 5 time. It should be particularly noted that the main component in this complex is the grenade launcher, and small arms have an auxiliary function and mainly serve for hitting targets at inaccessible grenades (the minimum distance for using the grenade launcher is about 50-100 meters).

Meanwhile, in the process of working out the concept, it turned out that the mass of the resulting complex in the collection exceeds 8 kg, which was found to be completely unacceptable even for weapons of support for the unit, not to mention the individual weapons that were planned (according to initial plans) to arm up to half of all soldiers. And this is taking into account the fact that the effectiveness of a 20-mm grenade was considered insufficient, even despite the “smart” system of detonation, which required an increase in their caliber, and accordingly - the mass of the complex. In addition, the cost of it was prohibitively high - more than 10 times higher than that of a conventional automatic rifle.

As a result, development in this direction has now been stopped, instead it was decided to create a separate 25 mm self-loading grenade launcher XM25 (OICW Increment 2) on the basis of the OICW rocket launcher module, which could be used as an effective branch support weapon. The development of the "rifle" part led to the birth of the XM8 program (OICW Increment 1), which included a wide range of weapons for the American army based on the G36 automatic rifle.

However, if these programs succeed, it is assumed that in the course of further development of the concept, the two modules will be merged again, already taking into account the new technologies that appeared by that time, potentially capable of making the future OICW Increment 3 system easier and cheaper to be acceptable for mass production .

Thus, it’s too early to put an end to the question of whether weapons systems like the OICW XM29 will be represented on the battlefield of the near future. It should be noted that there is still a definite tendency for this - for example, according to some information, the US army spent more than rifle ammunition on rifles than rifle ammunition, which indicates a very significant increase in the role of this type of weapon in modern combat and its transition from the category of auxiliary to the role of one of the main ones.

It should be noted that in the USSR a model of the weapon similar to the OICW — an experienced 5.45 / 12.7 mm assault rifle complex 80.002 — was created in the mid-1970s, and the weapon was much more compact and much more efficient than the XM29 - the machine gun and the grenade launcher did not exist as two completely different modules, but had a common automatics operating on two barrels with a common gate with two cups and two gas pistons. However, it did not receive further development, probably due to the low effectiveness of 12.7-mm ammunition, as well as the general futility.

In addition, in conclusion, it is worth briefly describing such potentially promising, at one time worked out, but not yet led to the emergence of tangible results directions, such as: the use of liquid fuels and other alternative explosives instead of ordinary powder; the use of jet (rocket) bullets, under which an experienced automatic rifle was built in the United States on the basis of a Gyrojet pistol; the use of various electromagnetic accelerating devices (see the Gauss gun ; at the present level of technology development, they are not yet suitable for the creation of hand weapons); use of laser beam weapons as a weapon (in the 1980s, the Sulakvelidze laser pistol based on pyrotechnic flashlights was created in the USSR for arming astronauts and firing under weightlessness and vacuum, but its power was only enough to destroy optical systems or burning suits) and so on.

• Beetle A. B. Small arms. M .: Military Publishing, 1992.

• Rifle
• Carabiner (weapon)
• Automatic (weapon)